Who else could eat sweet potatoes every day? I definitely could! They are such a perfect vegetable: so versatile, tasty, nutritious and filling.

One of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes include making a version of nachos by replacing the traditional corn chips with sweet potato fries. I love garnishing mine with black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, hummus, sriracha and lots of coriander.

I also love incorporating sweet potatoes in desserts. It is something I discovered recently thanks to Natalie from Feasting on Fruit. She creates desserts that are very low in sugar and fat. She often uses sweet potatoes to add sweetness and richness to her brownies and cakes. I loooooved her Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies and her Grain Free Sweet Potato Blondies. Both these recipes were rich and decadent while containing a bunch of healthy ingredients. You definitely have to check out her blog if you are not familiar with her work; all her recipes that I have tried were finger licking good!

Another way I love to eat my sweet potatoes is cut into cubes and baked. I drizzle them with a bit of olive oil and season them with cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper and a touch of cinnamon then bake them at 400ºF until they are soft on the inside. Baked sweet potatoes are a wonderful side dish; they pair really nicely with guacamole, hummus and Dijon mustard.

Fun fact: I never ate any type of loaded potatoes before I met my boyfriend Sam. He is the one who introduced me to them. My first experience eating a loaded potato was disappointing to say the least; Sam had ordered one as a side dish at one of these big restaurant chains and it turned out to be kind of bluhh... Not very flavourful and quite rich because of all the sour cream and shredded cheese. Since that day, I never really had loaded potatoes until Sam made his own version with sweet potatoes, avocado, hummus and beans.

*I was instantly converted!*

Ever since, I have experimented with loaded sweet potatoes quite a bit, topping them with a bunch of different garnishes. Honestly, I do not think it is possible to make a bad loaded sweet potato as long as you garnish it with ingredients you love.

How I came up with this particular recipe is that I stumbled upon Healthy Little Vittles' recipe for Loaded Sweet Potato + Chickpea Boats. Gina made her boats with artichokes, avocado cream, spiced chickpeas and vegan parmesan. To be honest, just looking at the photos, I started to get hungry! Since I did not have artichokes, avocado or ingredients to make vegan parmesan on hand, I thought I would try creating my own chickpea boats. That is how I came up with this recipe.

These loaded sweet potatoes are stuffed with baked chickpeas and pomegranate arils and are topped with a generous drizzle of a lemony mint-coriander sauce as well as lots of fresh coriander. I particularly love the contrast of the heat of the chickpeas and the freshness of the sauce. As for the sweetness and brightness of the pomegranate, I really think it elevates the dish. I will definitely be making these loaded sweet potatoes again in the near future & I hope you will too!

INSTRUCTIONS

Add chickpeas to the prepared baking sheet. Add all spices and toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes.

Using a fork, poke holes in the sweet potato and bake in the microwave for 5 minutes or until soft in the center.

To make the sauce, add all sauce ingredients into a medium bowl. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Alternatively, you could blend all ingredients in a small blender. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Assemble your loaded sweet potato. Cut it in half. Spread a tablespoon of sauce on both halves. Garnish with baked chickpeas, pomegranate arils and fresh coriander.